For our second sales play (see Storyboard Sales Play #1 – “Sphere of Influence”) to see the first play, I recommend you engage the prospective customer by showcasing Stack Rankings. We find, and our customers find, that this data-centric approach is a great wake-up call. As a prime example, Gartner’s Magic Quadrant rankings are an excellent example of this sales play. You’re delivering data to a customer to help them understand their market position against their direct competition, and/or best-in-class.

Factual sites like SEC filing (Form 10k) for financial performance, or government agencies

The purpose here is to push the prospective customer off their status quo to help them recognize that others in the market are exceeding their benchmark, so why aren’t they?

Here is a great created-data story from a customer of ours:

Hughes Networks is a global leader in satellite and internet services around the world. Their customer base ranges, but they have a strong foundation in retail, petroleum retail, and QSR as an example. Rather than rely on 3rd-party data, they make the data. They conduct in-depth store audits and walk-throughs, interview customers, and even pull the data from mobile phone traffic patterns within the retailer. They can help their clients predict traffic volumes, tendencies, and buying habits in their customer base. Imagine having this knowledge and then helping a list of competitive companies understand what best-in-class looks like:

About the Author

Jamie Shanks is a world-leading Social Selling expert and author of the book, "Social Selling Mastery - Scaling Up Your Sales And Marketing Machine For The Digital Buyer". A true pioneer in the space of digital sales transformation, Jamie Shanks has trained over 10,000's of sales professionals and leaders all around the world.

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